


Over Coffee and Tea

by ani_bester



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Comics)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Drinking & Talking, Gen, Old Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-16
Updated: 2012-11-16
Packaged: 2017-11-18 19:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/564367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ani_bester/pseuds/ani_bester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve needs to ask Natasha a question about information she withheld from him concerning Winter Soldier Rumors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over Coffee and Tea

**Author's Note:**

> This assumes familiarity with Brubaker's Captain America run.   
> Much thanks to my two beta's fyerluna and jynx

The small white coffee maker percolated with a gurgling noise that grated on Natasha's early morning nerves. As she opened the pantry to find the box of tea bags she wondered who had put it on, James or Steve. A simple glance out the window had revealed Steve's car still parked in front of the apartment, so she knew he'd stayed the night. Natasha guessed he was down in the gym with James. Training together seemed to be their version of "catching up on old times." The coffee maker made an especially perky burble, breaking Natasha's train of thought. She gave the noisy contraption an intimidating glare as she poured water into the tea kettle and set it on the stovetop. Of course though, it kept right on making the coffee, as boisterous as it had been before she’d glared at it.. 

However, as much as the noise irritated her the smell of the coffee was enticing. If there was any left between Steve and James, she might have some a little later. She smiled as she waited for the kettle to finish heating the water. For once neither Tony nor Clint would be around to tease her about enjoying less than fresh coffee. The kettle whistled, prompting Natasha to grab the stained pot holder from the counter and carry the kettle over to her mug. She poured the hot water in and dropped in a bag of black tea to seep. She'd just begun to enjoy her morning when she heard footsteps behind her. There was a creak as the archway to the kitchen was made to support the weight of a grown man.

James frequently rested against that frame while he and Natasha talked in the kitchen, but the wood never protested as loud as this. Which meant a larger man than James was now leaning against it, but a man with whom James shared many mannerisms, or rather one from whom James had gotten many of his mannerisms.

"Good morning, Steve." Natasha said, greeting Steve with a wave as she went to drop the tea bag into the trash.

She got no smile in return.

"What is it?" Natasha asked, not waiting for Steve to work himself up to saying what was on his mind. She leaned against the green counter and crossed her legs.

"Bucky and I were talking last night."

Natasha nodded. Steve said nothing and just cocked his head to the side, waiting. Natasha guessed he’d had grown used to quips from Clint or Spider-Man, or any other number of chatty sarcastic superheroes, but Natasha just a raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

Steve rolled his shoulders as he pushed off from the arch and went to the table. He leaned against that before looking back to Natasha again.

"He brought up how he met you again, the fight you both had over my shield. He mentioned you had said something and I wanted to ask you about it." Steve went over and pulled out a red and white and blue striped mug- a joke gift from Bucky if Natasha recalled correctly. He poured himself half a cup of coffee and began to sip it.

He pulled a face after the second sip. "Bucky still makes his coffee ridiculously strong, doesn’t he.”

"What is it I said, Steve?" Natasha asked. She set her own mug down and crossed her arms.

Steve sighed. "Right before you both fought, Bucky said that you mentioned that 'the rumors were correct' about who the Winter Soldier really was." Steve took a deep breath. "I don't think it meant much to him. He was just relating the situation as it happened, but-"

Natasha exhaled and picked her mug picked her mug back up. Her gaze followed the steam as it drifted upward in lazy curls. "Yes," she answered after the steam stopped rising. "Yes, I did say that."

"How could you not tell me?" Steve asked in a harsh whisper. "You knew all these years that there were rumors Bucky had been…. How could you not tell me?"

Natasha held her mug closer to her chest. "Because they were just that, Steve, rumors. Fantastical stories we told each other in whispers as we went from one training area to another, rumors along the lines that Anastasia might still be alive, or Rasputin, or other silliness. It was all talk that made things seem more mysterious or more important than they really were." Natasha took a small sip of tea then looked back at Steve.

"So, yes, there were rumors that Winter Soldier was Captain America's young partner. There were also rumors that Winter Soldier was Captain America, or the child of someone’s enemy, or the child of someone who sold the boy to gain power." Natasha shook her head. "There was even one especially popular rumor that Winter Soldier was the Tsarevich being used to help spread communism as a final sick joke of Stalin's. There was any number of wilder speculations, Steve, including his being a magical creature."

Natasha shook her head, her hands clutching around the mug. "I just assumed the simplest was true. That, like so many of us in these programs, myself included, he was one of the children "given to Lenin," who had been rounded up from the streets after the war." Natasha took another sip of tea. "I had no more reason to think he was Bucky than there was to think he was Alexis Romanov."

Steve leaned back heavily against the counter before looking over at Natasha. "But if there was even the possibility..."

Natasha drained her tea cup unceremoniously. She preferred to savor it, but it would be too cold to enjoy soon anyway. "I didn't think there was." She answered softly. "I never gave the rumor a second thought until James appeared, still in the Winter Soldier uniform, demanding the shield of his old friend." Natasha set the mug down and closed her eyes so she wasn't looking at Steve anymore. "Don't you think though, that it haunts me too?" She asked. "I wonder how much pain James would have been spared if we'd stopped him a decade earlier? But then I think of what it took to really get James back. Would mentioning those rumors really have helped? Or would it have put you both in a position where one would kill the other, or where we would stop Winter Soldier, but the brain damage James suffered would never be reversed."

Steve looked at the remaining coffee in his mug, then up at Natasha. “I guess we won’t know,” he murmured. He set the coffee mug down on the counter and left the room.

Natasha heard him as he went to the bathroom, slammed the door, and turned on he shower. 

“Tasha?” She looked over her shoulder. “Did Steve head out?”

“No,” she answered as she poured Steve’s coffee down the sink. “I heard him go take a shower.”

\- End


End file.
